Playlouder - Music is the Network

'All Pigs Must Die: A great song and a great album. Classic Death In June, though released relatively recently (in 2001) and received rather poorly. The pig song heads the album of the same name, which (at least partly) sees a return to DIJ's folkier era (the classic 'Rose Clouds of Holocaust') along with a collaboration from stunning Forseti accordionist, Andreas Ritter. The album repeatedly condemns the aforementioned pigs in twisted, dreary folk songs, before (halfway through) collapsing into abrasive industrial noise and distorted, yelled death threats.

Play it to most people and they feel pretty awkward.

Words:

All pigs must die / This ain't August '69All pigs must die / 7 & 7 - Sieg Heil - sublime!Their trotters are in the mud / They're better off with the son of GodThey had no idea / Not even close, not even nearAll pigs must die / This ain't August '69All pigs must die / 7 & 7 - Sieg Heil - sublime!

• Sieg Heil: a German phrase meaning "Victory Hail" or "hail victory". During the Nazi era, it was a common call at political rallies.
• Law of the claw: retaliation: an eye for an eye.

Douglas P, an Australian homosexual and vegetarian, (and, incidentally, musician), has had accusations of fascism/nazism levelled at him repeatedly throughout his career despite collaborations with Jewish artists and performances for Jewish audiences. It may have something to do with his appropriation of militaristic imagery (including the death's head or totenkopf: a grinning skull) and frequently violent (although poetic and obscure) lyrics.

I originally presumed the August '69 date may be the key to unravelling this. But to what does it refer? The Vietnam war? The Manson Family murders? Tension between Soviet Russia and Red China? The riots in Northern Ireland? The Australian dude setting fire to the Al-Aqsa Mosque?

Or simply the last days of hippiedom and that imbicillic and impractical soundbyte: 'make love not war'?

For me, this song is simply a revenge fantasy and could be applied to any scenario. If Douglas P uses nazi/anti-semitic language and/or imagery for effect then he's no guiltier than Sylvia Plath in her confused meanderings about her 'Daddy'. And the power of the song is evident in the effect it has on listeners - look at the YouTube comments - if nothing else, isn't it great to inspire debate and exchange of knowledge? It's easy to make someone OMG and ROFL.

Nobody hears this song and has it pass them by; a shame then, that few bother to experience the album in its entirety.

With material on DIJ relatively difficult to track down, thank goodness for the Internet. A quick glance at www.songmeanings.net and a helpful user called 4d5e6f provides the following helpful and succinct explenation:

"In 1991, World Serpent Distribution, a cd label, was formed by David Gibson, Alan Trench and Alison Webster with the help of Douglas Pearce (Death In June's main man), and Death In June was signed on. However, World Serpent wasn't giving its bands their agreed share of their album sales, and this eventually caught up with them. In the late 90s, Death In June broke off from World Serpent, and many of World Serpent's bands followed suite. This entire album is pretty much a hate letter against World Serpent, with the pigs in the album being World Serpent, and especially the "three pigs" talked about in the album being the three founders of World Serpent."